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Two fakes infiltrate TWA crash sites

NEW YORK, Aug. 1 -- Two people Thursday were being held for impersonating officials to infiltrate sites involved with the crash of TWA Flight 800, authorities said. One woman allegedly obtained mental health credentials to get close to relatives of the victims staying in a New York City hotel, while a man was accused of impersonating an Army Reserve officer to get into the Long Island command center where the crash investigation is headquartered. David Williams, 30, was arrested Thursday on charges he is a 'serial impersonator,' who was unmasked after he insinuated himself into the Center Moriches Coast Guard command center dressed in an Army uniform, said New York state Attorney General Dennis Vacco. Williams was discovered and fired from his job Monday when officials there also became suspicious, and learned Williams, who was acting as a doctor, actually held no medical degrees. Williams was employed by the Suffolk County Economic Opportunity Council treating disabled people for the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. He allegedly performed diagnoses on patients and prescribed treatments including medication and tubal feeding. 'We came to know of the charade of David Williams because in the tragic aftermath of the Flight 800 explosion he was actually masquerading as a U.S. Army Reserve lieutenant colonel,' said Vacco. 'As a result of the exposure he received for impersonating a military colonel, it became known to us that prior to this occasion he had been holding himself out as a physician,' said Vacco.

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Katherine Felicitas, of Manhattan, was detained by police Tuesday at the Ramada Plaza Hotel at John F. Kennedy International Airport, where Red Cross officials became suspicious of her behavior in spite of apparently legitimate credentials she obtained from a state mental health organization, said a spokesman. 'She had said she was there to help counsel the families,' said John Kampfe, of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the airport. Kampfe said the woman's act and credentials were so good, two legitimate counselors had to interview the woman. They also called an unidentified official who runs the facility where Felicitas got her identification. 'This gentleman said he knew her and knew of her, and suggested she needed help,' said Kampfe, who added he did not believe the woman got near any grieving family members. Felicitas was undergoing observation Thursday at the Jamaica Hospital psychiatric unit in Queens. 'These things seem to attract all sorts, like all those people calling in bomb threats,' said Kampfe, referring to the hundreds of calls received by New York City and airport police since the TWA jet exploded July 17.

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